Thermal disintegrator question.

[Stabby Dave]

ok! So a question about damage.

I read that it does 137 shield + 71 hull dps. So when the shield is down, does it just do the 71 hull damage, or is some/all of the shield dps applied? Even better - does anyone have the damage v shielded and unshielded targets?

Cheers.

[LughC]

I'm not home to check but the encyclopedia shows damage to a shielded target and damage to an unshielded target for all weapons.

[Metran]

The benefit of the Thermal Disintegrator mk1 and mk2 is that they have a bleed-through effect, so using such weapons even the smallest and least armed ship can eventually destroy any and all ships and stations.

Thermal Disintegrator mk1 Stats

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[Imperial Good]

and stations.

Stations do not have shields protecting their hull. As such all weapons deal their full hull damage to them.

[Metran]

@Imperial Good - true, however their turrets may have shields.

[dtpsprt]

@Imperial Good - true, however their turrets may have shields.

I'd like to see a video of a Courier destroying just one Split Disc Defence module filled with all turrets... and that's supposing thatthere are no other turrets in range and in lign of sight with that ship...

P.S. Maybe Egosoft should add a "curious" emoticon... I suppose it would be used a lot...

[Metran]

Such specific situation there is a non-zero (>0%) percent chance to be successful, however impractical it may be.

[GCU Grey Area]

I'd like to see a video of a Courier destroying just one Split Disc Defence module filled with all turrets... and that's supposing thatthere are no other turrets in range and in lign of sight with that ship...

Don't have a video, however 2xTD armed Tuatara is not a terrible choice for a ship to use for turret smashing missions. It's reasonably fast, small enough that incoming turret fire mostly misses (particularly if a bunch of laser towers have been deployed as a distraction) & that civilian classification is quite handy at times - have to get all the way to -25 rep before station turrets will preemptively shoot on initial approach. Both variants are good, main differences are the mineral version is quite a lot faster & more manoeuverable, but has a substantially weaker hull than the courier. Tend to prefer the mineral version myself until I've got the mod parts to improve the handling of the courier. Obviously there's also a difference in what cargo they can haul but that has very little relevance to a turret smasher.

[Imperial Good]

To smash turrets you could also use Blast Mortars which deal splash damage so damage banks multiple times per shot, also while damaging the underlying hull!

Thermal Disintegrators and other shield piercing weapons are useful for taking on highly shielded hulls as otherwise lesser ships might never be able to damage them. For taking out turret banks you might as well just use Blast Mortars as they deal orders of magnitude more damage to the point that the L shields on a defence disc offer no significant protection.

[GCU Grey Area]

To smash turrets you could also use Blast Mortars which deal splash damage so damage banks multiple times per shot, also while damaging the underlying hull!

Thermal Disintegrators and other shield piercing weapons are useful for taking on highly shielded hulls as otherwise lesser ships might never be able to damage them. For taking out turret banks you might as well just use Blast Mortars as they deal orders of magnitude more damage to the point that the L shields on a defence disc offer no significant protection.

Burst Ray's also good for this, probably my favourite weapon for the task. However I make a point of using different ships & gear in each new game I start. Game wouldn't be as much fun if I used exactly the same ships & loadouts every time. TD armed Tuatara worked well enough anyway. Incidentally, I tend to avoid weapons with lots of splash damage for my turret smasher. Such missions are failed if a station module is destroyed before all mission targets on it's surface are eliminated. Know this is unlikely to happen when using an S ship for the task, nevertheless still prefer to err on the side of caution.

[thijso]

I love the termal disintegrators. I mostly fly around in my Balaur with 2 TDs and 2 Burst Rays (used to be 2 Neutron Gatlings) and regularly use it to disable (and sometimes destroy) the errant K's that fly through my as yet unprotected gates. You can take on a K with that loadout, but only if it is unescorted. You can also declaw an I to make it simple pickings with that loadout.

The trick is to take the right path around the K so you are never in shot for any of the heavy guns. Drop onto the back, take out the two engines (makes the rest a LOT easier) and then fly into the gap under the belly by the engines to take out the first two gravitron turrets. Then fly over the engine, take out the one closest to it, and turn to the top front and take out that one. Same on the other side, and you've just declawed your K. Now either take out the two XL shields with the thermals and then you can shoot until it blows. Get out of the way before it does, though, cause the blast will hurt. Or call in a heavy gun to finish it off for you...

The thermals are mostly needed for destroying the heavy shields, but help a lot with the rest as well.

Oh, and the Balaur, because it has 4 guns, and most important they are top-mounted. Makes it possible to hit the gravitron turrets without being hit yourself. Those suckers HURT.

And the basics are the same for an I, but that one is a lot harder as it has a lot more cross-covering fire from all the turrets. But it is possible...